Breadcrumbs

Digital accessibility is about making sure that technology — including websites, mobile applications, kiosks and more — can be used by everyone, including disabled people. Digital accessibility is good for business and a core best practice of tech development. It’s also required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws both in the U.S.…
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In less than two months, four different federal judges have said “Yes” to website accessibility. These cases, from Florida and New York, are a wake-up call to every business in the United States that serves the public: If you have a website, make it accessible so everyone can use it, including disabled people. Every business has a budget; every business watches how money is spent. These cases are but the most recent in a long-string of wake-up calls with a simple message: Spend your hard-earned dollars on accessibility, not on lawyers to fight it.
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On June 23, 2017, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed titled “Is your company’s website accessible to the disabled? You’d better hope so.” The piece was mean spirited and full of inaccuracies about web accessibility. I took the piece’s alternative facts personally because the author wrongly claimed that Bank of America, Charles Schwab, and Safeway had been sued for web accessibility. I knew better — my clients, co-counsel and I had worked with each of these companies in Structured Negotiation. Joseph O’Connor and I tried to submit a response to the Los Angeles Times, but our efforts were rejected.
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Last month the Winn-Dixie grocery chain lost the very first trial under the Americans with Disabilities Act about the accessibility of a private company’s website. A blind shopper had sued the chain when he couldn’t access online coupons and other parts of the company’s website. The judge’s verdict was big news; unlike most accessibility stories it was covered in the mainstream media. But web accessibility for grocery stores is nothing new.
If Winn-Dixie had been paying attention, it would have known over three years ago that grocery chains were making their websites accessible. Winn-Dixie should not have waited for the legal knock on the door. When it came, it should not have put up a fight.
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